Brad O’Neill has dismissed the suggestion that England have been underprepared for his or her Rugby League World Cup marketing campaign as they bid to start out salvaging it with an unchanged staff towards France this Saturday.
England are beneath stress – and in enormous hazard of lacking out on a semi-final spot – after dropping final Saturday’s opening match 30-12 to Tonga, however head coach Brian McDermott has stored religion with the identical 19-man squad.
McDermott’s facet have had a good turnaround for the match – the Tonga match was simply 14 days after the 2026 Tremendous League Grand Remaining, with England flying out to Australia 10 days earlier than the sport.
They didn’t play a warm-up match – and so went into the sport having not performed a single worldwide fixture since dropping to Australia in Headingley in November final 12 months.
Defeat by Tonga got here in McDermott’s first match in cost since being appointed in April, and O’Neill mentioned they’re “new staff” and “these little issues ought to come collectively”.
However when requested by BBC Sport if England have been drained and underprepared for Tonga, the 2026 Tremendous League Man of Metal mentioned: “By no means, we had an important week of prep heading into the match.
“The entire staff felt actually good bodily, it was only a good recreation and the higher staff received.”
England males: AJ Brimson, Dom Younger, Hugo Savala, Herbie Farnworth, Zach Eckersley, George Williams, Harry Smith, Max King, Brad O’Neill, Luke Thompson, Junior Nsemba, Kai Pearce-Paul, Victor Radley.
Interchange: Jez Litten, Ben Currie, Ethan Havard, Sam Walters, Jack Welsby, Matty Ashton.
Reserves: Kallum Watkins, Mikey Lewis, Ben Talty.
